History of Escoroso
See also: Escoroso Turn 0 }|turn00| The nation of Escoroso is located in one of many small lakes. These industrious mer-people are ruled by two equal rulers who are elected annually in a public election. The people are divided into two distinct classes: the wealthy merchants and businessmen and the poorer working classes who mostly work in the agricultural or industrial sectors. The people’s interests are represented in the government by two bodies. The Patriara’s members are all upper class merpeople, and the Betians are made up of the working class. Each house gets to vote on important governmental organizations, but the Patriara’s votes count for a bit more than the Betians. Despite this, having representation and an active say in the government makes the common merfolk much more content. The merfolk of Escoroso are a religious bunch. There are as many gods as there are needs. Many households have their own gods that their families have worshiped for generations. But officially, there are a handful of gods that oversee important functions in society such as war, industry, farming, love, and marriage. The merfolk have a strong belief in the afterlife but do not worship a god of death. Death is inevitable, so worshiping a god of the inevitable seems like a waste of time to the Escorosi. These merfolk are not entirely restricted to life in the water. They are able to hold their breath for long enough to travel short distances between lakes and to communicate with creatures outside the water. Any prolonged time out of water requires the use of a special helmet so the Escorosi can breathe. Outside of the business of everyday life, the people of Escoroso enjoyed watching various sports and live events. There is a small stadium in the downtown area where people gather to enjoy a race or a sporting event. This type of entertainment is popular with the wealthy and poor alike, and hundreds gather at the arena to watch. }} Turn 1 }|turn01| At the south side of the large lake there was a swiftly flowing river that wound its way through a sparse forest and eventually emptied into a small, still lake. It was down this river that three merpeople now made their way, armed with tridents, the traditional weapon of their people. The river flowed so quickly that conversation between the three travelers was reduced to the occasional grunt or call of warning at an approaching rock or tree branch. Within a few hours, the three emerged from the water, dumped rather unceremoniously into the lake they were seeking. As they righted themselves, one turned around to look at the mouth of the river. “Someone’s gonna have to do something about that.” “I don’t think many folk would take too kindly to being turned head over heels each time they came to a city” grunted the leader, “but we can work that out with the capitol when we return.” The group spread out into a wedge formation and worked their way around the outer edge of the lake. The water was a crystal blue except for, at the southernmost tip, a darker patch. From a distance that section of the lake appeared black, but as the travelers approached, it resolved into a huge patch of plants growing up from the sandy bottom. Within the fronds, a school of fish or two flashed and disappeared. At the base of these plants lazed large, grey creatures. They were very docile and allowed the three travelers to come right up to them. “This lake is quite the find” said Amea, “I know this plant well, it grows in my mother’s garden. Though not quite in such abundance. It is very edible, though somewhat bland if unseasoned.” “What of these other creatures? They seem too slow to be mounts.” “They might be good for eating” the leader chimed in, “Or maybe they could serve another purpose. Once we clear the rest of this lake for dangerous creatures, we can return home and explain to the capitol what we found.” Expansion southward Develop culture Develop power x2 Results +3 (63-60) -36 (24-60) -5 (55-60), +23 (83-60) After many above-ground adventures, the surveyors found an old, dry streambed that wound near the river. Over the course of many weeks, a portion of the flow was diverted by weedy sails, and once the waters were deepened by the passing of industrious tails, a longer but gently winding path traced down from the river’s course, around the violent mouth. Soon, the lakebed swelled with the lighted homes of pioneers shining up through the depths. (Expansion successful! +2 to all resources.) The grey creatures were harder prey than anyone expected. Their hides were tougher than their spears were prepared for, and more than once, a hunter was knocked unconscious by the impact of one of the massive things. The plants were much easier to hunt. Despite their confinement to this section of the lake, the fronds grew like a disease when introduced back home. Amea was disappointed. They tasted different than the plant’s her mother served. Tougher by far, and with an almost fishy taste that responded poorly to seasoning. Luckily, they had managed to keep it under control, but at what cost? The stuff, which they’d taken to calling “lobata”, was in every mouth, on every skewer, and it plagued every thermal vent with its shriveling odor. (+5 Power) {Your home province has reached a new level of development. Development difficulty there increases to 65.} }} Turn 2 }|turn02| The lobata was almost impossible to get rid of. Every effort seemed to just make the plants tougher to remove the next time. Few were interested in trying to eat it any more. So the ever resourceful merpeople turned to another avenue. In their many attempts to make it into an edible plant, they had stripped off the outer layer only to discover that the core of the plant was a tough, woody stalk. With some manipulation these stalks could be woven into mats that most of the other lake creatures found difficult if not impossible to eat. The merpeople soon realized that using these mats to build homes and businesses was much more effective than the materials they had been using previously. There was less upkeep (due to the nibbling of fish and other creatures) and the mats withstood the constant push of the currents better than rocks ever had. These mats were soon in such high demand that whole businesses were devoted to their creation. The sizes were soon standardized as were several types of weaves. The most tightly woven mats were used for outer walls, doors, and ceilings while those more loosely woven were used to create the inner walls. But not all the structures in the capitol were built from entirely from lobata mats. The stadium was the pride of the merfolk who lived in the capitol. It had been painstakingly built from stone and was held together with intricately woven lobata ropes. Inside this stadium, citizens from all walks of life gathered to watch once a week to watch the famed Escorosi sporting event. Two merpeople, armed with blunted spears and tridents, would fight in front of the crowd. The event lasted several hours. During this time 6 pairs would fight and then the winners of those matches would fight each other the next week to determine the champion. Then everything would start over with new pairs fighting the next week. At the end of a 16 week period there would be 8 overall champions. Over the next four weeks those champions would be narrowed down to four, and so the process went until there was just one reigning champion. There would be a break for the rest of the year for the contestants to train up for the next year. Develop power x1 Develop income x1 Develop culture x2 Results +2, -32, -34, +21 While the lobata mats proved useful, they turned out, on a whole, to be far less versatile and more time intensive to produce than the fired clay-kelp shingling the people were already used to making and using. Outside the capital, the mats served well as temporary shelters or, in newer homes, as window-covers. They weren’t much against a strong current, but they’d keep the detritus out in the flood months. (+3 Power in Pueraria) The last match of the tournament reached its peak, the water thrumming with the beating of tails in the audience. One of the finalist’s tridents spiraled off into the air, fanned by the other competitor’s tail. He flourished his trident, grinning at her as she flopped along the bottom, kicking up sand and clutching at where her lobata armor was torn. As the male gloated, pumping his trident upward, the water filled with a haze, particulate blocking vision and sound. He slunk in, clicking his teeth, his trident ready. When the sand cleared, the crowd thrummed. The female had the male by the throat, a piece of lobata torn from her armor around his gills. The Patriara, seeing this display, had a crown of lobata quickly fashioned. Thereafter, a frond of lobata, worn about the breast or fashioned into a crown, was a sign of cunning and bravery. (+3 Culture in the capital) }} Turn 3 }|turn03| Ever resourceful, the Escorosi found a better use for the lobata mats already produced. The merpeople wrapped their already constructed walls with the lobata mats and anchored the mats to the lake floor with deeply buried heavy stones. This way the already produced mats would not go to waste and the buildings would be strengthened in case of strong currents or a strong storm. At the far end of the capitol lake there are two geothermal vents. Out of these vents comes scalding hot water that makes that end of the lake uninhabitable. Using suits made out of lobata mats, the merfolk were able to venture down to the vents to investigate them. With the best innovators involved, the merfolk began constructing two chambers around the vents. This activity alone takes several months because the construction of the chambers was more difficult than anyone anticipated. The heat coming from the vents was simply too great for the chambers to withstand for very long. So they were rebuilt bigger and bigger each time, but each time they would crack from the heat. Finally the workers built holes into the sides of these chambers to release some of the heat and keep the walls from cracking. When the chambers finally were built, the workers then began to build a series of pipes back towards the capitol. These pipes were not connected yet, but the main goals was to build three big pipes long enough to reach the capitol. The rest of the construction would have to wait until that was completed. Even though the tournaments were now over for the season, that did not mean that the tournament building went unused. In fact, it was busier than ever. The trainees spent most of their days in the building doing drills and practicing their technique. Above the entrance to the building some of Escoroso’s finest craftsmen carved a lobata crown. This crown became not only a symbol of cunning and bravery but also the symbol of the games themselves. Develop power x2 Develop culture x2 Results +13, +10, -11, +31 Despite the many cooked fins and swollen, ablated gills of unlucky workers placed in hospice, the pipes reached the capital. It look longer than expected, but the first signs of frost hadn’t yet crystallized on the surface far above when the thing was in working condition. Heat poured through, warming the walls and attracting fish and algal growth all down its length. At the far end, the water that poured out wasn’t quite as hot as anyone expected, not quite so hot as that which poured out of vents itself, but hot, still, and that was probably for the best. The original plan was to run pipes out along the streets, warming the entire capital, but the lead architect, Cyrus, and his students scratched their heads at the problem. Running along the street, they would be dangerously hot to the touch. Buried beneath the sand, they would be impossible to repair. They were simply too heavy to run above the streets, and would the heat even be enough for the entire capital? Tackling a problem of this size, right before Winter set in and people got cross about heat, would be folly. Instead, they ran each of the three pipes to a building of enough social importance that nobody would dare bickering about it. One, they ran to the tournament amphitheater. Its bowl captured the heat, radiating it out through the walls to the training gladiators. The second, they ran to the center of the capital down its own secluded street, dumping its heat into the forum, invigorating discussion and gathering more mer than ever. And the last pipe, of course, ran directly to Cyrus’s home, warming the water for him, his family, his servants, and (by pure happenstance) the next homes around. This had little direct social impact, and in fact did cause a measured amount of bickering and general malcontentment, but the argument for it (which wormed its way through the ears and mouths in the newly invigorated forum) was that it was a great incentive for future architects, architecture being a noble and necessary civil art. (+5 Power, +5 Culture in Escoroso) }} Turn 4 }|turn04| The success of the heating system was celebrated throughout the capitol city. There was some discontent at Cyrus’s home being the third place to be heated, but this discontented merfolk were soon quieted by the promise of heat in each home. (Although this promise was a long way off from becoming a reality, it smoothed any ruffled scales.) To ensure the pipes remained intact and the heating system worked well throughout the whole winter. Worker housing was built as close as possible to the thermal vents. Working on these vents could be dangerous, so the idea was to make the benefits as appealing as possible. The houses were to be built down at the far end of the lake were the water was warm but not scalding. This would provide constant heat for the workers and their families. With houses so close to the vents, the commute to work would be much shorter, and finally (and possibly most enticing of all) the workers would receive a week of paid vacation time. Decent pay along with these benefits would hopefully attract more workers to this ever-growing job. Although it was nearing the end of the fighting season, with the final match being at the end of the month, the stadium would be far from empty. Once a week there were open training sessions that were widely attended by Escorosi youth who longed to be in the ring themselves someday. During the rest of the week the stadium was closed in the morning for trainings, but it opened up in the late afternoon for other events. The capitol city had become rather well known for its excellent dramas, and many merfolk would come up to the city to watch one of the tragedies. The plays were usually about the common merfolk whose experiences could be translated into lessons for the whole population. Another popular plot line was interaction with the gods. The god or goddess would inevitably disguise themselves as a common merman or merwoman, and the play would detail their interactions with mortals. Before the winter became too harsh members of the government (known collectively as the Senata) decided it would be important to search for new lands. The capitol was booming, and they figured that come summer the wealthy would be looking for a nice quiet lake where they could relax. An expedition was sent out. They headed north along one of the rivers in search of a new and unexplored lake. After nearly a week of traveling they came upon a rather small and shallow lake. The water was frigid, so they spent little time exploring it. It seemed to be unoccupied by any large creatures. The water was crystal clear, and the bottom was make up of small round pebbles. The explorers marked it down on their map and returned to the capitol. Develop power x1 Develop income x1 Develop culture x1 Expand northward Results +25, +34, +31, +0 The radiant warmth, seeping into the sand and the buildings, staves off the frost above and the seasonal torpor of people and creatures below. As the people grow more accustomed to the pipes — coined the pericausta — and less afraid of its dangers, dwellings closest to the caustways became coveted by Patriara. All but the most valued pipers were driven to alleys and side streets or driven outward, the capital stretching along the pipe toward the vent, transforming the city like blooming algae. (+5 Income, +3 Power in Escoroso) Cyrus the Architect is rarely seen in the Forum anymore. Rumor is that he has taken ill, and spends all of his time in his interior garden, the foliage and himself warmed by the heat. He leaves his home only occasionally for the dramas, especially those by a Terence Maecana, who has taken to adapting histories, however real or mythical, to the dramatic place. (+3 Culture in Escoroso) {Development difficulty in Escoroso increases from 65 -> 70.} Far to the north, a small hamlet crops up, lacking both the warmth and the bustle of the capital. There is not much space here, and very little water that is calm enough to live in or deep and wide enough to bother. On warmer days, exploration continues through the many valleys and small lakes before, one day, they find the biggest river turning up from the mountains and falling with thunder from its icy cliffs. (Expansion Struck! +2 Power, +2 Income, +3 Culture) {North of Pueraria, there is less water and more difficult terrain for merfolk. Expansion and Development actions in this region are harder, increasing to base 70 difficulty.} }} Turn 5 }|turn05| With the cold from the winter weather staved off for most households, the capitol turned its attention to some of the smaller and uninhabitable lakes to the north. Although these lakes would not be suitable for most of the population, a little exploring determined that they were indeed rich in resources. A multitude of fish lived in these cool waters, making them a great source for all sorts of delicacies that the Patriara enjoyed. At the bottom of some of the shallower lakes, the merfolk discovered metal deposits. The lakes in this region were rich with deposits, and soon these lakes were teeming with activity. Again, the geothermal vents in the capitol lake proved to be invaluable. They produced waters so hot, that the merfolk were able to soften the ore and use it to create tools and other implements. Some of the first things they created were molds for silverware and plates to replace the old wooden ones they had been using. Then they began crafting molds for a multitude of other items including jewelry, household items, and weapons. Cyrus’s disappearance was of great annoyance to the capitol as his architectural expertise was soon wanted to using this metal to build buildings. They offered to increase his pay and even agreed to allow him to make his own home the first metal house built in the city. Develop power x1 Develop income x2 Research metalworking x1 Results 25(-37), 54(-14), 87(+19), 96!(+38) The northern lakes spawned little communities of metal diggers. They went out in the morning when the sun rose above the mountain ridges and warmed the water, and they came back home to eat fatty salmon in trench houses they’d dug into the bed of deeper, slower lakes, just deep enough where the water kept its heat to the air but quick enough to keep the surface ice from sticking. Despite being at the equator where the sun’s heat should have made the water sultry, clouds blew down from the mountain, blotting out the sun and dropping an afternoon bout of icy rain with such regularity it was as if the sun was taking its lunch hour in Cercanorte. Worst of all, the fish didn’t seem to mind any of this. They swam circles around hunters, pillaging from the lunches of metal diggers while they worked. A real nuisance. As the day of the syzygy drew near, moon-sparkles cast down. The winds changed subtly. The sun was back on full duty, skipping its lunch break to shine down through the entire afternoon, and for the first time since they’d set their intrepid camps, a blue sky hung above Cercanorte waters. The ice thinned and broke in places. And the fish, it was either the odd weather or the moon’s rays, but something drove them away from shallows where the metal diggers worked. Days later, they might have discovered why. At night (for it was impossible to see during the day) a faint light, like the sparkles of the moon, came from the flecks of shiny, white metal which had been so coveted, and when the diggers heard a sound like singing beneath the ground, the followed it to find humming black lumps covered with speckles of white. They placed the lumps in the furnaces, melting the white metal off. Just a couple fist-sized lumps bore enough metal on their surfaces to make a whole fork or, if you were lucky, a ladle handle. The black lumps, now pockmarked like coral, were high fashion, sitting in the parlor of every Patriarian domicile. Cyrus, in the meanwhile, alternated between breathlessly working by his forge and feverishly resting in his garden. His apprentices discussed in hushed tones whether he was well enough to be doing this, but they were never brave enough to make an action out of it. In fact, they doubted that anything could keep him from this task the capitol had laid before him. They saw the furrows in his brow, the intensity by which he pored over geometries and ran every angle of the mathematics around until his compasses all needed sharpening. They were asking the impossible, to build a structure out of something so soft it could be worked in the hand. Children could turn a dram into a jewelry dish in weeks. A building would be twisted apart in days. Upon the news of the first singing stones, Cyrus demanded a shipment of them be delivered to him immediately. He worked without breaks, drawing up diagrams that his apprentices barely understood. None of them could decide if it was genius or madness. He sent them away after another batch of failures. Upon the next day, they found him collapsed in the doorway of his forge. He would not wake, even days after being moved to his quarters. His apprentices marveled at the work he’d done in a single night. He had modified the forge, the title of a scribble naming it as a “bubble forge”, and a few of the black lumps, the ones that had already been drained of white metal, were missing. In their place were a progression of black shards, beside discarded molds of sand. On one end was a lump of bubbly, barnacle-like metal, and on the right, an elegant tiny blade. An oyster knife, his apprentices decided. It was shaped just like a stone for shucking oysters, but a hundred times stronger and black as roe, and when they held it up to their ears in the moonlight, they heard it sing. (Metalworking Researched! You can now use a new strategic resource: Cyrus metal. Each unit of metal can be used to reduce the cost of one Build or Recruit roll per turn, or be expended to promote a unit.) (Income +2) }} Turn 6 }|turn06| The Cyrus metal was quickly in high demand, and it changed many aspects of life in the lakes. Previously, food and other items were purchased by trading. Coins made from wood didn’t survive long underwater and it was difficult to find stones of an equal size. Now the Cyrus metal could be used to create uniform coins that would last. An entire building was constructed for the creation of these coins. On one side was the silhouette of a merfolk and on the other the victory crown won by the victorious iatorae. They made three different sizes of coins. These coins were strong enough not to bend easily, but thin enough not to use up excessive resources in their creation. There was a bit of difficulty changing over from the trade system to the coins as merfolk did not always agree on how much their items were worth. But the government worked diligently to standardize prices to keep both the citizens and the shopkeepers happy. The fish were a popular food in the lakes, but they tasted best when freshly caught. Hunters often had to spend several days catching enough fish and then more time traveling back to the cities. Some of the pickier merfolk would not even think about buying several day-old fish, and the hunters struggled to sell all of their catches. They reasoned it would be more effective to raise the fish in captivity. This way everyone could have their fresh fish when they wanted them, and there would be no risk of excessively depleting the wild population. In far corners of the larger cities, the hunters built large metal cages and brought back fish to live there. They paid carefully attention to their schools and made sure to keep the right number of fish in the cages to prevent inbreeding. Build mint, develop culture x1, income x2 Results +34, 100!, -28, -26 The construction of the new mint is a great success! Due in great part to the aid of Cyrus’s notes and the help of his apprentices, his namesake metal is heated by the bubble-infused forges and poured into molds made of fine sand. After the coins have had time to harden, the molds are broken open and the sand re-purposed for new molds. While Cyrus’s apprentices are upset that his new discovery is not being put to the smallest degree of its potential, they agree it’s more noble a use than fancy dining implements. Built in Escoroso! This will surely stimulate the economy. You may add a +10 bonus to one Income action in your capital every turn the mint is running. The mint costs 10 Energy per turn (aka 10 Power) to run and along with a unit of Cyrusite. mint will cost 10 Energy per turn (aka 10 Power) to run. It did not cost any wealth to build, but unfortunately, as long as it’s running, you won’t be able to use your Cyrusite (the only known supply of it you have) for anything else. However, the newly minted coinage simply refuses to flow. When given the prospect of trading their goods and services for slivers of metal and then taking those same worthless slivers of metal to trade for yet more goods and services, the good people of the city ultimately decided that the slivers were perfectly fine where they were, and they were quite fine without them, thank you very much. After all, trading works just fine. The government’s efforts to spread the coinage — by setting up stalls at marketplaces and forums to trade them to the public — do not have the desired effect. Curiously, all three sizes of coin, which were supposed to have vastly different values, were being acquired from the stalls nearly equally. Once these collections of three were complete, they sat gathering dust in family rooms, often in fetchingly decorated display cases. Live-caught fish were increasingly rare in the capital, especially in the dead of winter when many creatures kept to the warm deeps. It was far easier to catch fish in the shallows where traps could be constructed. Spears were better in the deeps, and besides, there were creatures bigger and more dangerous than fishes there. Luckily, they were also less active in the winter. In the morning deeps of a northern lake, a young hunter baits his cages. The cages are oblong, made mostly of reeds, but fixed together with metal spines. There were a few fishermen that came in with their metal cages, most of them Patrians or sponsored by them, come to fish for sport or for their own palates. Even they could bring to bear only so much wealth in the building of their big, elaborate metal cages. Really, it wasn’t keeping the fish that was the problem, it was catching them in the first place. Even net-fishing shocked the poor creatures to death more often than not. The young hunter returns in the evening. Hoops of reed, fortified with cheap metal strands, allow the entrance of fish, but once inside, refuse their exit. Each cage is brimming with bream and carp, and he releases them into a larger basket. His mother and brother take the day’s catch from him, passing their father and sister returning to the lake with empty baskets. Live fish, caught the day before. There was no competition. Slowly, as demand grows from their success, the family draws in hordes of fishermen looking for steadier work and to learn their techniques. The design of the cages spreads, but not before the family makes a name for itself as the first commercial fishing company in Escoroso. Garum Fishing Company. +10 Culture. On the first successful development roll each turn, you gain a unit of Fish in that province. Fish are a special resource, and can be consumed to pay the cost of every army and building in their province. Some Fishes may also have special properties. }} Category:History of Al'jann